Most companies strive to offer a good customer experience so that they can increase their customer retention rate and customer loyalty. According to Zippia, 89% of companies primarily compete based on customer experience.
Companies can measure how good their customer experience is by determining the customer satisfaction score (CSAT).
In this article we will discuss what customer satisfaction score is, how to calculate CSAT score, how to use CSAT score, ways to improve CSAT score and key customer satisfaction metrics.
What is a customer satisfaction score?
The customer satisfaction score is a metric used by businesses to gauge the feelings and level of contentment customers have with a company, product, or service.
It also shows satisfaction regarding a particular interaction or experience.
According to Salesforce, 91% of customers are more likely to repeat a purchase after a good experience. Therefore, it’s crucial for you to understand your customers’ perceptions.
You need to get in line with your customers’ wants to maintain a good purchase history with them.
What is a good CSAT score?
A good CSAT score differs among companies due to their different services or products. Therefore, a score ranging from 75% to 85% is considered excellent.
What is the difference between CSAT and NPS?
Customer satisfaction scores (CSAT) and net promoter scores (NPS) are two widely used metrics in customer experience measurement, but they serve different purposes and focus on different aspects of the customer journey. CSAT measures customers’ satisfaction with their interactions, transactions, and experiences with a company and its products and services.
On the other hand, NPS measures customer loyalty and the likelihood of advocacy by asking clients a single question: “How likely are you to recommend this company/service/product to a friend or colleague?” Clients respond on a scale from 0 to 10, with 0 being not likely and 10 being extremely likely. NPS categorizes respondents into promoters (score 9–10), passives (score 7–8), and detractors (score 0–6), and calculates the score by deducting the detractors from the promoters.
While CSAT provides insight into specific customer interactions, NPS offers a broader view of customer loyalty and advocacy, making it a valuable tool for assessing overall customer sentiment and identifying areas for improvement in customer experience.
How to calculate CSAT score
CSAT score can be calculated by obtaining feedback from customers through a simple survey, such as asking customers to rate their level of satisfaction with a company’s product or service and equipping them with a corresponding survey scale.
The CSAT score can also be calculated by taking the sum of all positive responses, dividing it by the total number of responses collected, and then multiplying it by 100 to get the overall percentage of satisfied customers.
When should you measure customer satisfaction? To obtain the most accurate and useful result, there are several key moments when you should assess the score. They include:
- After support interaction: Measuring customer satisfaction after an agent interaction offers an understanding of how a customer feels about the quality of support or the customer experience being offered to them.
- After serval interactions: This helps to monitor the progress of customer experience.
- After six months: By conducting a six-month survey, you assess satisfaction over a longer period and gather valuable feedback to enhance customer contentment.
How to use customer satisfaction score surveys
The information collected from surveys used to measure customer satisfaction scores can be useful in the following ways:
Measuring the quality of a business
Businesses can pinpoint their strengths and weaknesses by routinely administering customer satisfaction surveys and studying the results.
If a company has a low CSAT score, it could suggest that customers are unhappy with the quality of its products or services.
The company can then initiate measures to enhance the quality of its offerings, such as responding to frequent customer complaints or upgrading its manufacturing techniques.
Improving products and services
Customer satisfaction scores can utilize the knowledge gained from the survey to make improvements to products or services.
This may include addressing frequent complaints, improving customer service, or implementing modifications to a product based on customer response.
Enhancing understanding of competitors
Since most companies experience competition from different companies, a CSAT survey can be undertaken to collect feedback on customer satisfaction from those who prefer other brands or services.
By examining customer feedback, your brand development team can make the required adjustments to improve how customers’ needs are being met.
Providing employees with customer insight
Utilizing customer satisfaction score benefits employees by providing them with an opportunity to understand customer’s concerns and behaviors, understanding trends and addressing negative feedback effectively.
Ensuring effective communication and customer follow-up
To improve relationships with customers who are not actively involved with a company, it is important to engage them in conversation individually, asking for feedback that helps to enhance product or service quality.
How to improve CSAT score
Improve your customer satisfaction score through the following:
Gather feedback and act upon it
Regularly collecting feedback and implementing it should be an essential aspect of your company’s operations. This will consistently improve your products and services according to your customers’ preferences.
By collecting your customers’ feedback, you can get a deeper understanding of your customers’ experiences.
Additionally, you can utilize your findings to enhance and maintain effective practices while also addressing and improving any aspects that fail to meet customer satisfaction.
Reduce customer service response time
If customers perceive that their inquiries are being addressed quickly, they are motivated to provide positive feedback regarding the product or services.
To guarantee customer satisfaction, strive to respond to their inquiries promptly and effectively. This will demonstrate that you appreciate your customer’s time.
By increasing speed or dedicating time to optimize the processes through which your team interacts with customers, you can reduce customer service response time.
Understand your customers
To effectively provide customers with solutions, it is essential to have a deep understanding of your customer base.
By knowing who you customers are, it is easy to know what kind of service or product they require and the challenges they face when using your services or products.
Provide multichannel support
Multichannel customer support involves providing various support channels and platforms that enable customers to engage with your business.
This facilitates smooth management of all conversations across these channels, ensuring that customers receive consistent support at every contact.
Establish a customer-focused culture
To advance a culture focusing on customer service satisfaction, a company can provide customer service training to all teams, enabling them to consistently bring value to customers in their interactions.
Provide customers with the option of self-service
By offering customers the option of self-service, their satisfaction can be enhanced as they are empowered to resolve their own issues, decreasing waiting time, and increasing trust in the product or service.
5 Key customer satisfaction metrics
Customer satisfaction metrics measure a company’s success with customers. Here are some of the CSAT metrics:
Customer satisfaction score (CSS): This metric gauges the level of customer satisfactions with a company’s product or service. It is usually measured via customer feedback and represented as a percentage.
Customer effort score (CES): It evaluates the amount of effort customers must exert to conduct business with a company.
Customer churn rate (CCR): This metric gauges the frequency at which customers cease their business transactions with a company.
Customer lifetime value (CLV): Is a customer satisfaction metric used to estimate the total revenue a company will generate from a single customer throughout all their interactions with the business.
Net promoter score (NPS): This metric gauges the level of customer loyalty, satisfaction, and enthusiasm toward a company.
What is customer satisfaction index?
The customer satisfaction index (CSI) is a measurement that combines satisfaction scores from various business attributes to create an overall satisfaction indicator.
For example, in a company of three attributes—where the CSAT score for customer service is 60%, brand quality is 70%, and price is 40%—to calculate the customer satisfaction index, use the following formula:
CSI = (Sum of Each Identified Attribute/The Total Number of Attributes)
CSI = (Customer service + brand quality + Price)/Total number of attributes
= (60 + 70 + 40)/3
= 56.67%
Therefore, your company’s CSI is 56.67%
CSI is related to customer satisfaction in that both metrics assess customer satisfaction. However, CSAT score focuses on satisfaction with a particular attribute while CSI is the average CSAT score of different attributes.
Utilize customer satisfaction score to improve your customer service
Customers prefer a company that offers a good customer experience. Using a CSAT score to provide insight on how to meet customer concerns and improve your customer support contributes to a company’s growth.
To improve your customer satisfaction score, consider using BoldDesk, which offers customer satisfaction survey features. Check out the BoldDesk free trial or book a live demo. Feel free to contact the BoldDesk support team in case of any questions.
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